​A large group of Flyball MAINEiacs made the trip just over the Maine border to Florenceville-Bristol Canada for the 1st annual Carleton County Pawtatoes tournament! Our gracious hosts were amazing! We tented on Carole-Anne’s lawn, had campfires with lots of the other clubs, a corn boil and we were walking distance to the site! What a great little town with one of the biggest turnout of spectators. Our corgi mixes were feeling the love from the crowd with special requests to see Shamu warm up and visitors coming over to meet Odin.

The site was great too! We enjoyed some great home cooked breakfasts and lunches, including poutine!

We ran 3 teams this weekend. All of them ran so well together! I didn't get our placements for Sunday since we needed to get our tents packed up and on the road home. Running great and having fun was all that mattered and we definitely did both.

Funk You Up! (Regular 2)4th place on Saturday

Roxie – 980Reese – 980Curly – 980Abbey – 875Eliot – 85LeviPicnic

Roxie is loving being start dog! She has gained so much confidence and really seems to trust her team. She trusts her team so much that Reese going nuts just 6 inches away from her is no big deal! Reese was so solid in the #2 spot. I'm pretty proud of my boy! Curly was a rock star this weekend. He held his turn really well and was nice and speedy. Abbey was spectating in the other lane this weekend but she proved to everyone that she can spectate and get her job done without crossing! She was really starting to pass and got a personal best time of 5.2! Eliot did a few heats this weekend and is looking so good! He had a few baby moments where he forgot he needed to do a turn and get his ball, but he recovered and stayed really confident. Levi had some really nice warm ups in Sat. This boy is looking so good and making such good decisions. Levi talked Picnic into taking his spot on Sun so she could get some time in the lanes. Picnic’s recalls were so focused and fast!!! She did get to doing some box work by the end of the day and is really advancing to the next level.

Shut The Front Door (Open 1)2nd place on Saturday

Rita – 822Capri (CC)Henna (WW)Remi (WW)BannerMurphyShamu

This was an awesome little open team! None of these dogs have ever run together but you would have never known it! This team also had a tied heat in the first race of the day on Sat. That was pretty cool!! Rita did a really good job in start. It's a hard job and she stayed strong all weekend. All of the open dogs that ran with us were rock solid and a pleasure to run with. Banner warmed up on Sat and was a little distracted but did get in some head to head racing and held himself together. He's making progress. Murphy warmed up on Sun and is doing great with his focus on getting his ball and staying in his lane. A rolling ball did get the best of him once but we have plans to work on that. Shamu warmed up both days and had a bit of a fan club! He and Anna are doing really well working together and should be running some real heats soon.

Fine Whine (Vets)2nd place on Saturday

Shilo – 235Sammie – 485Sassy – 400Luna – 485Bullet – 85Kessie – 250

This vets team has been running together for most of the 2016 season. They are running really well together. Shilo and Kessie split their spot this weekend. Both of them were really happy to be at a tournament and running with Rebeccah! Sammie had some help in the lanes from our Jr. Handler. Anna is getting pretty good at letting Sammie go at just the right time. Sassy and Bullet shared a spot too. Sassy was a trooper and got the job done. Bullet seems to like the #2 spot and was speedy and confident! Luna was really solid this weekend. She seems to really enjoy running with this group of dogs. Sammie apologizes for knocking the top slat off and scaring Luna!

We did some mat time on Sat night. Odin got to come and play and did some box work and recalls. He hasn't seen much of the flyball experience and he handled it all very well! Picnic and Thistle did mat time together. We were all prepared for Picnic to go visiting that we weren't paying attention to Thistle. So Thistle saw her opportunity to go visit. They both figured things out and go their jobs done. Quincy did some nice recalls and box work too. Rufus came out for the first time. He wasn't a big fan of being held by a stranger, but his recalls were great!

New titlesAbbey – FDCh-GEliot – FDXReese – FMXRita – FDCh-G

We missed all of the MAINEiacs that couldn't make this trip, but don't worry it's on our calendars for next year so you'll be able to join us the next time!

Up Next:Sammie and Reese will be running on Vets and Open in Greenfield.